The Ladykillers didn't live up to my expectations. It was funny, a decent black comedy but it wasn't hilarious and I was expecting hilarious. Still, it's better than a lot of movies that pass themselves off as comedies. Even so, I really wanted to love a movie written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou?), starring Tom Hanks and Marlon Wayans. And I didn't love it. I liked it but was ultimately disappointed.

The Ladykillers is a remake of a 1955 British comedy starring Sir Alec Guinness (known to most Americans as Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi). I haven't seen the original so I can't compare it to this recent version. The plot involves a group of thieves who are conspiring to rob a riverboat casino. Mastermind and ring leader, Professor G.H. Dorr (Tom Hanks) rents a room from widow Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall) whose root cellar is in a perfect location to tunnel into the casino's offices. Hanks and Hall sparkle in their respective roles. Hanks plays the professor with sinister glee, relishing his large vocabulary and his astounding ability to turn a five-word sentence into a paragraph you'll need a dictionary to decipher. Hall is great as the widow who routinely speaks to her dead husband's portrait.

Dorr assembles a team of crooks to assist him in his enterprise: Explosives expert Garth Pancake (J.K. Simmons), inside man Gawain McSam (Marlon Wayans), a chain-smoking Vietnamese tunneling expert known only as The General who sports a Hitleresque mustache and Lump Hudson (Ryan Hurst) the perennial dumb jock. Wayans and Simmons gave the best performances of the team. I thought Wayans might overdo it but he didn't. He played it just right. He was very funny yet at the same time managed to give his character a bit of compassion as well. I also liked seeing J.K. Simmons (of Oz and Law & Order fame) in a comedic role. He was scary and intense on HBO's prison drama Oz and intelligent and detached as the psychologist on Law & Order. By tackling comedy, I've gained even more respect for him as an actor.

So what's the problem? ? I liked the clever plot twists and I prefer my comedies dark. Why am I not giving this a higher rating? I don't know. My expectations were just so high and it just didn't measure up. I wanted to laugh harder and longer. And, I didn't.